ABC's upcoming music competition series Rising Starrelies upon live online voting to instantly determine which singers will advance to the next round. The reality format launched in Israel, a small nation which has only one time zone. As west coast fans of The Voice who were denied the opportunity to participate in that show's Twitter-based instant save discovered, live online voting is difficult in a big country with multiple time zones. The show's producers told The Hollywood Reporterthat they have come up with a solution.

The show will air simultaneously in the East Coast, Central and Mountain time zones, from 9-11 PM on the Eastern time zone, 8-10 PM in the Central zone and 7-9 PM in the Mountain zone. Those in the Pacific Time Zone will watch the East Coast version of the show from 9-11 PM, but with added live vote bars for Pacific Time Zone voters. The rules of the show are that any performer who gets approved by 70 percent of the viewers in any time zone moves on to the next round, so a performer who is voted off on the East Coast could be saved by the West Coast. The producers did not reveal whether residents of Hawaii, which has its own time zone, would be included in the West Coast vote.